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Something about this is unsettling. On the surface, it seems to be an almost Christ-like love he is offering these priests. Yet it seems also that there may lurk something under that surface.
Views vary on bishop's column about gay priests
By CRAIG FOX
Finger Lakes Times
cfox@fltimes.com
http://www.fltimes.com/Main.asp?SectionID=38&SubSectionID=121&ArticleID=10198
GENEVA — Joanne Bienvenue of Waterloo wasn’t surprised to hear this morning that Bishop Matthew Clark recently wrote a column assuring homosexual priests that they are welcome in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester.
Bienvenue, a former longtime parishioner of St. Mary’s Church in Waterloo, knew that the bishop had been supportive of homosexual priests and seminarians, and gays and lesbians, in the past.
While she believes in being tolerant of gays, Bienvenue disagreed strongly with Clark’s views, which he made clear in a column that appears in this week’s Catholic Courier.
“I don’t support a lot of things that the bishop has supported. I don’t know about some of the things that the Rochester Diocese has come out with.
“It’s something I feel in my heart,” she went on to say. “There’s no place for gay priests. They lead the parish, and they’re there to teach the Commandments and the way of life of the Commandments.”
In his column, Clark writes that two priests had told him years ago they were homosexuals, and he was glad they came forward because it “was a great relief to them.” Other priests have come forward to him since then about sexual orientation, he notes.
“Lately, I have thought about these friends and prayed for them in a particular way. I have also prayed for priests who are gay but who are not ready or feel no need to tell me about sexual orientation,” he says.
He’s prayed for them, he writes, because of “recent developments that have caused them a lot of pain,” including a long-rumored document from the Congregation for Catholic Education about the admission of gay men as candidates for priesthood.
According to some media reports, the document is expected to dissuade gays from pursuing the priesthood, while some people hope it will say that each applicant for the priesthood should be considered on a case-to-case basis.
Ruth Page, a pastoral associate for the Rochester Catholic Community of Geneva, “appreciates” Clark’s views on gays and homosexual priests and seminarians.
Page hadn’t read the column and was unaware it had appeared in the weekly newspaper, but said she understands why he would not want someone “in his flock to feel pain, to feel distressed or feel uncomfortable.”
She pointed out that ordained priests made a vow to be celibate, no matter what sexual orientation they might have.
“If they have a genuine calling to serve God’s people, they should be allowed to follow their vocation,” Page said, since it would “be a God-given call.”
A key 1961 Vatican document on selecting candidates for the priesthood made clear homosexuals should be barred. But the instruction, and others that followed, have clearly not been enforced in many American seminaries and religious communities. Estimates of the number of gays in U.S. seminaries and the priesthood range from 25 percent to 50 percent, according to a review of research by the Rev. Donald Cozzens, a former seminary rector and author of “The Changing Face of the Priesthood.”
U.S. bishops were expected to take up the subject in private during their national meeting starting Monday in Washington.
Clark has shown his support in the past for homosexuals. Last year, he presided over a Mass for gays and lesbians at a Rochester church.
Jeanette Housecamp, faith formation coordinator with St. Patrick’s Church in Newark, doesn’t believe gay priests should be an issue if they follow the church’s rules for “devotion and celibacy.” She also has never had a priest come forward to her and talk about being gay — it’s something they keep to themselves and don’t discuss with their parish, Housecamp said.
“It’s not much of an issue as people make it out to be. They’re there to administer to the people,” she said. “[Sexual orientation] has nothing to do whether they are a good priest or not.”
But Bienvenue said that some of the more liberal views and actions by the Rochester diocese has made her family look to other Catholic churches in the area. After leaving St. Mary’s, they began attending more traditional services in Ovid, she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Priests found new group 'to affirm the value of our gay/lesbian clergy and religious' (Catholics Affirming Homosexual Leadership)
http://www.cahl.us/index.html